Fresh Corn & Egg Scramble

One of my go-to "I have no idea what to cook tonight" meals is breakfast for dinner.  It's different for the kids, it's easy, and you can get rid of all your leftovers.  Just scramble eggs, and throw everything in it!  I had never really thought about putting corn in my eggs until I had breakfast at Martha's 22nd Street Grill in Hermosa Beach, California.  They make a white corn scramble that's to die for.  During the summer, I almost always have leftover corn in the fridge, and I love slicing off the kernels into salads, pastas and now... scrambles!  This was delicious, probably due to the cream and Boursin cheese I added (no judging) but also because of the delicious, fresh, summer corn.

Fresh Corn & Egg Scramble

(Serves 4)

Printable Recipe

2 T unsalted butter

6 large eggs

1/4 cup milk or cream

4 ears of cooked corn, kernels sliced off

1/4 cup Garlic & Herb Boursin cheese (or garden veggie flavored cream cheese), crumbled

1 T chopped fresh cilantro (or parsley)

Salt and pepper 

In a large skillet, heat butter over medium heat.  While heating, whisk the rest of the ingredients in a large bowl.  Add to skillet, and cook until fluffy using a rubber spatula to stir eggs.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  

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Perfect Egg Salad

Over the weekend, I was treated to the best homemade egg salad I've ever had.  It was made by a great cook who didn't want to reveal her specific recipe... however, she did tell me it's basically mayo, dijon mustard, dill, parsley and of course salt and pepper.  But the big revelation was her technique for making it the PERFECT fluffy consistency... she smashes the hard-boiled eggs with a fork.  Brilliant!  I've never tried that before, but you can better your bottom dollar that I will now (I like to talk like Orphan Annie).  Soooooo good.

We will be traveling a bit this week, but I will try and post as much as I can.  And heading to the Today Show next week, more on that to come!  

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Spring Veggie Breakfast Pizza

In honor of Earth Day, I present to you this Breakfast Pizza, full of green foods that come from the Earth!  Only mine came from the grocery store because gardening and I are not a thing.  In fact, my son keeps asking me if we can build a glorious garden with carrots and an apple tree and I keep smiling and nodding while crying inside because he's going to discover my black thumb and hate me.  

But anyway, this green egg dish screams spring with vegetables like asparagus, zucchini, broccoli rabe and leeks.  I made it with half full eggs and half egg whites, a dash of 1% milk and a small sprinkling of Parmesan cheese to keep it nice and light.  Who even am I??  Don't worry, later on today I plan on RECYCLING* my old bananas into a peanut butter, coconut, chocolate, oatmeal, crispy cereal bite.  THAT's who I am.  *I love the Earth!         

Spring Veggie Breakfast Pizza

(Serves 4)

Printable Recipe

8 eggs (you can do some egg whites, all egg whites, whatever you prefer)

1/4 cup low-fat milk

2 T parmesan cheese

2 T olive oil

1 zucchini, chopped

1 leek, chopped (just white and pale green parts)

1 bunch broccoli rabe, chopped

1 bunch asparagus, chopped

1 T chopped fresh basil

Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, milk and cheese.  Set aside.  In a large, oven-safe skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat.  Add cleaned, chopped veggies and basil, and sauté for 6-8 minutes, tossing a few times with tongs and seasoning with salt and pepper to taste.  Add egg mixture and let sit over heat until edges begin to brown.  Place skillet in oven, and bake for 15-20 minutes, until cooked and top begins to golden.  

p.s. This dish is great for any meal of the day!

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The Crispy Egg

There are many different ways to cook an egg, and I thought I'd tried all of them.  Scrambled, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, baked, poached, souffléd, deviled or simply fried.  But that is not all of the ways, oh nooo.  Have you heard of The Crispy Egg?  I sure will capitalize every beginning letter because The Crispy Egg demands respect like that.  Essentially, The Crispy Egg is simply a fried egg... but it is also so much more.  IT'S SO CRISPY!  (Said like the little girl in Despicable Me says, "IT'S SO FLUFFY!")  You can almost pick up the entire thing and eat it like a piece of pizza.  Or, you could probably put it on a pizza!  That would be delicious.  Or a salad, or simply a piece of toast.

Read this tutorial for more information, it's as simple as can be.  

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Avocado Egg Salad

I don't know why this idea hasn't occurred to me before.  I love the combination of eggs and avocado!  If I'm going to have a fried egg sandwich or an omelet I almost always slather the green stuff on top.  So to add diced avocado to egg salad seems totally obvious and I'm smacking my own head for figuring it out just now.  (Ok, I'm not really abusing myself, but there was that drunken period of time in college when I thought it was hilarious to slap my own face.  Not sure why I admitted that.)

This is an easy and fun twist on regular old egg salad.  Call it "green eggs" and serve it with ham!  Or serve it on lightly buttered toast with lox and a squeeze of lemon, like I did.  However you eat it, don't hit yourself, because that's weird.  

Avocado Egg Salad

(Serves 2)

Printable Recipe

4 eggs

1 avocado

2-3 T mayo

1 tsp dijon mustard (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Place eggs in a saucepan and cover completely with water.  Bring to a boil on the stove, then cover, turn off heat and set timer for 15 minutes.  Once time is up, remove from stove and rinse eggs with cool water.  Peel.  Dice eggs and avocado and place in bowl.  Add mayo and mustard, and stir.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

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Baked Egg & Kale Bites

We're on our way back home today and I couldn't be more excited to start baking holiday cookies and treats.  I am going to call myself "Intha" for the entire month of December, which is a name I just made up by combining Martha and Ina.  It's a beautiful name, isn't it?  I will most likely name my 4th or 5th or 6th baby Intha.  What's more important, however, is the spirit that Intha represents, which is "holiday food and decor created in an obsessive and perfect way."  Yeah, Intha be crazy.  So look forward to that!

But first, please enjoy this easy (my phone just autocorrected "easy" to "rash" and that made me chuckle) breakfast snack.  It's very simple to throw together and extremely versatile, meaning everything and anything can go into it.  Here's what I did:

To make 6 bites, whisk 6 eggs together in a bowl with a couple tablespoons of milk.  Add one cup of chopped kale, and stir.  Season with salt and pepper.  Spray a muffin tin with baking spray.  Add one slice of pancetta to each cup (optional), and then evenly distribute the eggs.  Bake for 20-30 minutes at 350 degrees.  I put the broiler on for the last few minutes to make them golden brown.

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Lentils + Kale + Egg + Avocado Bowl

Let's face it, it's almost time to stuff ourselves to the brim with holiday feasts.  I am not opposed to that, don't get me wrong.  But before we fatten up for wintertime, how about a nice, light, healthy dinner?  This is exactly that - a meal rich in nutrients but hearty enough to fill our tummies.  Sorry I said tummies, but I have three children under six years old.  

I loved, loved, LOVED this dish.  And versatility is the best part about it.  Quinoa instead of lentils?  Sure.  Poached egg instead of fried?  Yup.  Swiss chard instead of kale?  Uh huh.  Add sausage?  Yes please!  This is getting annoying.  Everything worked so well together... and the crunch of toasted coconut on top sealed the deal.  Even if you think you don't like coconut, toast some up and try it on this dish.  I will pay you, except no I won't.       

Lentils + Kale + Egg + Avocado Bowl

(Makes 2 bowls)

Printable Recipe

2 large eggs

2 cups dried lentils

4 cups water

1 bunch kale, chopped (rough stems removed)

1 T parmesan 

1 avocado, cut into long slices

1/4 cup coconut, lightly toasted in a dry pan

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

In a medium pot, combine lentils and water and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat until only a few bubbles are left, and let simmer for 30 minutes or until lentils have absorbed water and are no longer crunchy.  Generously season with salt and pepper.  While lentils are cooking, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.  Add chopped kale and parmesan, and sauté until kale begins to wilt (I still like a bite to my kale, so I only cook it for a few minutes).  Place kale in a bowl.  In same pan, add a splash of olive oil and turn up heat to medium-high.  Crack two eggs into pan, and cook until edges start to brown.  With a spatula, gently flip eggs and turn off heat.  Assemble lentils, kale and sliced avocado into two bowls.  Add one egg per bowl, sprinkle with toasted coconut and season with salt and pepper to taste.  

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Moo Shu Shrimp

Carson was away for a few days, and it seems like whenever he's out of town I make the foods he's not particularly fond of: pasta and Asian dishes (you know, carb-heavy meals).  The same reader who tipped me off to the Lo Mein I made earlier in the week also sent me this recipe for Moo Shu Shrimp, and it's been sitting in my inbox staring at me ever since.  

I love shrimp, especially when it's a part of Asian cuisine, so I knew I would love this meal and I wasn't wrong.  Way to know yourself, Siri!  And now I'm talking to myself about knowing myself and this is all getting weird and stupid.

So this was yummy.  Perfectly cooked shrimp paired with lightly scrambled eggs, sautéed mushrooms and cabbage (which came from a prepackaged cole slaw mix), fresh ginger, garlic, cilantro and sweet hoisin sauce (which I balanced out with spicy Sriracha), all wrapped up in a warm, flour tortilla.  I made some brown rice as well, and for my second helping I ditched the tortilla and ate everything on top of the rice.  Just did that again for lunch.  Might do it again tomorrow.  

I know myself.         

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Buffalo Deviled Eggs

Buffalo sauce.  Will you marry me?  I promise to love you forever and I'll always be true, unless brown sugar bacon tempts me and in that case, LATER.  

My friends and I share a love of buffalo anything.  So when I came across a recipe for deviled eggs, I decided to make them for an afternoon pool party.  We were ALL pleased.  They took no time to assemble, and I even got all fancy and piped the yolk mixture into the egg whites using a plain old freezer bag with the end snipped.  You've got to get a little fancy when you're proposing to a sauce, after all.  Recipe here. 

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Egg & Sausage Casserole

Another Easter Sunday dish I made was this egg casserole.  I love things you can prepare the night before and toss in the oven when you wake up.  It makes life so easy, and I love easy life.  When things are simple, I have time to blog, and read a book, and shower.  I should make this casserole every day of my life.  But I don't, and so I blog when I can, and I'm very behind for this month's book club, and I shower twice a week. 

I used this recipe but changed it up a little.  Omitting the bacon, I only used pork sausage, and so that kids would eat it, I skipped all green veggies.  No kids ended up eating it (did I mention there were donuts that morning?), so I wish I would have added green onions but, next time.  With sausage, cheese, hashbrowns and Bisquick as ingredients... there will definitely be a next time!    

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Egg & Cheese on a Roll

When we moved to NY, we chose to live outside of the city.  However, one of my favorite parts about NYC is breakfast.  Bagels, of course, but also the Egg & Cheese on a Roll you can get at just about EVERY deli you walk into.  There's nothing uniquely special about it - it's a fried egg (or two), melty American cheese and a soft roll.  But the combination is to die for, and I swear I could probably eat two sandwiches in one setting I KNOW, I HAVE A PROBLEM.  

This morning I decided to make them at home, substituting an English muffin for the roll.  I quickly fried up an egg (in one of those tiny pans you can buy at the drug store), melted some American cheese on top, and placed on a toasted, buttery English muffin.  Perfection in the suburbs of the city.

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Wakey Wakey!

For your busy Monday mornings...  

How to poach eggs in the microwave and how to scramble eggs using an espresso machine?!  

I know I suggested there would be a major blog remodel over here today.  I got ahead of myself, but it's still going to happen.  I will keep you posted!  

More egg dishes here.  

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Spinach Pesto and Sausage Strata

My friend Beth made this Rachael Ray egg dish yesterday and it was absurd (recipe here).  Incredibly filling and delicious in many ways.  She also made Monkey Bread and I practically had to roll myself out of her house.  I don't have willpower, especially when it comes to bread and cheese.  If you ever have to torture me into revealing information, just put me in a room full of bagels and cheese curds.  You'll win.  You'll also witness a frightening amount of bagels and cheese curds enter my body.  Anyways, the above dish would make a lovely Mother's Day brunch.

And remember this?   

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Egg Salad and Pancetta on English Muffins

Egg McMuffin Schmegg SchmcSchmuffin.  (Did you say that out loud?  Did you sort of think you sounded like Sean Connery?  Do you feel embarrassed now?  There, there.)  Who needs fast food breakfast when you can whip this delicious concoction together!?  It's so easy, even Sean Connery can do it (I know that Bond has many talents but do you EVER see him cook?).  English muffins, a leeeeeedle bit of butter, egg salad and crispy baked pancetta (or bacon, whatevs).  I HIGHLY recommend you go to M Street Kitchen if you're ever in the LA area and pick up their Homemade English Muffins.  They're the stuff love songs are written about.            

*A reeeeeally old post on how to hard boil eggs.

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